Penn Sailing 6th at Old Guard; 3rd in Ivy League

Our regatta weekend started on Friday afternoon as Jack Swikart, Mac Agnese, Pati Andrade, and I drove away from Penn’s Spring Fling weekend carnival and headed north towards Yale. After a daunting four-hour drive up, we stopped for our traditional Outback dinner before arriving at the hotel. After a team bonding movie night watching Disney’s Frozen, we all went to bed.

The next morning dawned warm and sunny. We arrived at Yale Corinthian Yacht Club early with plenty of time to rig and prepare for the day. Jack and Pati would spend the day sailing the intriguing new Z420s in A fleet, while Mac and I would race FJ’s in B. The wind was a consistent SSW 8 to 10 knots, making for a slightly choppy Long Island Sound. After four races each, both fleets headed in for a lunch break before returning to the water still in their original boats. Unfortunately, the wind died just after both fleets completed their first 2 races, forcing the race committee to abandon the A fleet’s half finished 7th race. The delay lasted at least 3 hours as the teams chatted with friends on the water. The breeze came back around 5:00 and after two more races for each fleet, the race committee sent the sailors in. After de-rigging, the Penn team headed into New Haven to check out Yale’s campus briefly before finding dinner at an amazing Italian place closer to our hotel. (Shameless plug for Bella Pizza – they were that good)

Sunday was a little cooler than Saturday, with a lighter 5-7 knot breeze that gradually built to 10 knots before lunch. Jack and Pati were now sailing FJs while Mac and I took on the Z420. After four morning races, both fleets returned to shore for a quick lunch break. The sailors returned to the water for three final races in a slightly lighter SE breeze with large waves from the Long Island Sound rolling right-to-left across the course, making for tricky conditions.

The team is very pleased with their performance on the weekend, since the Owen Trophy also serves as the Ivy League Championship, in which Penn placed 3rd behind Yale, the number 2 team in the nation, and Brown, which ranks 11th. It was a great improvement on our result from last year, and we look forward to getting even better going forward. Not to mention that we had fun getting back into the swing of fleet racing and thoroughly enjoyed getting to try out the new Z-420s, which will be featured at the ICSA Nationals this June. Thank you very much to Yale Corinthian Yacht Club and the Yale sailing team for hosting the event!